Association on American Indian Affairs
Encyclopedia
The Association on American Indian Affairs (AAIA) is a non-profit organization promoting the welfare of American Indians and Alaska Natives
. AAIA is the oldest Native American Indian advocacy group in the United States, and has helped create the Indian Child Welfare Act
, helped preserve Native American lands, and continues to improve the quality of life for Native Americans in the United States.
– to sustain and perpetuate their cultures and languages;
– to protect their sovereignty, constitution, law and human rights and natural resources;
– to improve their health, education, and economic development and community development
.
people who were fighting efforts to dismantle their pueblos. In 1946, the name was changed to the Association on American Indian Affairs. In 1957, the organization was granted non-profit, 501(c)(3) status for federal tax purposes.The AAIA has waged innumerable battles over the years, touching on the material and spiritual well-being of Indians in all 50 United States states: from the right of Native Americans to control their resources to their right to worship freely; from their right to federal trusteeship to their right to self-determination
.
Association timeline
1922 AAIA is formed
1922 AAIA helps Pueblos protect land and water rights
1945 AAIA helps to establish National Congress of American Indians
1948 First college scholarship] awarded
1956 AAIA establishes Field Health Nursing program
1968 AAIA begins effort to prevent Otitis Media
on Indian reservations
1968 AAIA works to protect Taos Blue Lake
1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act
enacted
1978 Indian Child Welfare Act
signed into law
1982 AAIA President Ortiz honored by MacArthur Foundation
1984 Tribal Government Tax Status Act becomes law
1986 Landmark Washington Indian Child Welfare tribal-state agreement signed
1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
enacted
1991 The Medicine Wheel Coalition for the Protection of Sacred Sites established
1994 Amendments to American Indian Religious Freedom Act
approved
1994 Reaffirmation of the Ione Band of Miwok Indians
by the federal government
1996 Bighorn Medicine Wheel Historic Preservation
plan adopted
1998 First AAIA-sponsored diabetes
conference takes place
2000 AAIA expands grants to summer camps
2006 AAIA creates Dakotah-language
Scrabble
game and hosts first tournament
2007 Dakotah language K-12
curriculum completed
2008 Tribal amendments to Title IV-E Foster Care and Adoption Assistance Act approved in Fostering Connections for Success and Increasing Adoptions Act
or for adoption. AAIA works with tribe
s and traditional Indian religious petitioner
s in efforts to protect sacred lands such as the Bighorn Medicine Wheel
in Wyoming
. It works with tribes to educate Native people about diabetes and health related issues. AAIA played a key role in enacting the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
and continues to assist efforts to repatriate human remains, funerary and sacred objects to their tribes. AAIA provides funding for youth summer camps with a cultural, language, substance abuse
, and health and wellness focus. AAIA works to preserve Native languages, with a particular focus upon the Dakotah language.
(ICWA) is a federal law that seeks to preserve Native American families and keep American Indian children that must be placed out of the home with American Indian families, whenever possible. The United States Congress
passed ICWA in 1978 in response to the alarmingly high number of Indian children being removed from their homes by both public and private agencies. The intent of Congress under ICWA was to "protect the best interests of Indian children and to promote the stability and security of Indian tribes and families" (25 U.S.C. § 1902). ICWA sets federal requirements that apply to state child custody
proceedings involving an Indian child who is a member of or eligible for membership in a federally recognized tribe.
Advocacy and research by the Association served as a catalyst for the Act. AAIA’s first activities involved the representation of Indian parents whose children had been wrongfully removed from them, beginning with a case involving the Devils Lake Sioux
Tribe Later, AAIA conducted a survey of states with large Indian populations in 1969 and again in 1974 which indicated that approximately 25–35 percent of all Indian children are separated from their families and placed in foster homes, adoptive homes, or institutions. AAIA’s Executive Director was the lead witness at the first hearing on Indian child welfare and worked with Congress to draft the legislation. In the 30 years since ICWA was enacted, AAIA has worked to ensure the effective implementation of the Act.
and belong to a Federally Recognized Tribe. The Allogan Slagle Memorial Scholarship is unique in that it is offered to students from tribes that are not federally recognized. The Displaced Homemaker Scholarship is offered for men and women who have been unable to complete their education due to family obligations, but are now returning to college.
rograms that increase their understanding of their language, culture, and that educate youth about diabetes. AAIA provided funding for 9 different summer camps in 2008 that addressed these issues.
. Younger people may have the ability to understand certain phrases or sing Dakota songs but lack the proficiency to keep the language alive for the next generation. AAIA materials include books, MS PowerPoint presentations
, DVDs, CDs, and an animation piece that was nominated for Best Animation at the Native Voices Film Festival.
In 2005, with the permission of Hasbro
, AAIA created an official Dakota version of Scrabble
, including a 107 page dictionary for use with the game. It has sponsored Dakotah-language Scrabble tournaments and made the games available to schools throughout Dakotah communities.
Joining with the Sisseton Wahpeton College
, the Association on American Indian Affairs produced the first rap
song ever recorded in the Dakotah language in 2005. The rap song, titled “Wicozani Mitawa,” or “My Life,” was recorded at a studio on the Sisseton Wahpeton College campus in Sisseton, South Dakota
, on the Lake Traverse Reservation
. “The entire concept behind this project is to create a way to have an entire generation of young people actually hear Dakotah being used,” Director of the Native Language Program for AAIA, Tammy Decoteau, said.
The program has also created a K-2 Dakotah language curriculum which all includes all of the books, CDs, games and other materials needed for implementation of the curriculum.
All of AAIA’s language materials are available for translation into other Native languages.
and the Medicine Wheel
in Wyoming, and Bear Butte
in South Dakota. In the case of the Bighorn Medicine Wheel, AAIA helped create the Medicine Wheel Coalition, a coalition of Plains Tribes who have a traditional history of using the Medicine Wheel and Medicine Mountain for spiritual purposes. With the assistance of AAIA, the Coalition negotiated and signed in 1996 a landmark Historic Preservation Plan (HPP) with the Forest Service
, as well as state and local government agencies, designed to ensure that the entire area around Medicine Wheel and Medicine Mountain is managed in a manner that protects the integrity of the site as a sacred site. It has also worked to protect the San Francisco Peaks
which are sacred to more than a dozen Southwest tribes, affect national policy in regard to sacred lands, and provide legal training to tribal advocates and federal officials regarding the laws applicable to sacred lands protection.
(NAGPRA). Enacted in 1990, NAGPRA provides for the return of human remains and cultural items to indigenous peoples, including funerary objects, sacred objects and cultural patrimony. NAGPRA contains provisions regarding the ownership of cultural resources, the repatriation of these resources to tribes and lineal descendants, and a prohibition on trafficking in these resources. Due in large part to this Act, museums and federal agencies across the United States have inventoried and repatriated thousands of remains and objects held in their collections. AAIA has been very involved in the implementation of NAGPRA, having facilitated repatriation of almost 2,000 human remains to Dakota tribes and sacred objects to a number of tribes, as well as filing amicus briefs in NAGPRA cases, writing legal analyses of NAGPRA for public education purposes and filing comments on proposed regulations. AAIA is committed to assisting in the return of sacred ceremonial material to the appropriate American Indian nation, clan, or family, and to educating the public about the importance of repatriation.
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
. AAIA is the oldest Native American Indian advocacy group in the United States, and has helped create the Indian Child Welfare Act
Indian Child Welfare Act
The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 is a Federal law that governs jurisdiction over the removal of Native American children from their families.-General:...
, helped preserve Native American lands, and continues to improve the quality of life for Native Americans in the United States.
Mission
The mission of AAIA is to promote the welfare of American Indians and Alaska Natives by supporting efforts– to sustain and perpetuate their cultures and languages;
– to protect their sovereignty, constitution, law and human rights and natural resources;
– to improve their health, education, and economic development and community development
Community development
Community development is a broad term applied to the practices and academic disciplines of civic leaders, activists, involved citizens and professionals to improve various aspects of local communities....
.
History
The AAIA has defended the rights and promoted the welfare of Native Americans and, in this process, has shaped the views of their fellow citizens. The Association on American Indian Affairs was started in New York in 1922 as the Eastern Association on Indian Affairs while trying to assist a group of PuebloPueblo
Pueblo is a term used to describe modern communities of Native Americans in the Southwestern United States of America. The first Spanish explorers of the Southwest used this term to describe the communities housed in apartment-like structures built of stone, adobe mud, and other local material...
people who were fighting efforts to dismantle their pueblos. In 1946, the name was changed to the Association on American Indian Affairs. In 1957, the organization was granted non-profit, 501(c)(3) status for federal tax purposes.The AAIA has waged innumerable battles over the years, touching on the material and spiritual well-being of Indians in all 50 United States states: from the right of Native Americans to control their resources to their right to worship freely; from their right to federal trusteeship to their right to self-determination
Self-determination
Self-determination is the principle in international law that nations have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no external compulsion or external interference...
.
Association timeline
1922 AAIA is formed
1922 AAIA helps Pueblos protect land and water rights
1945 AAIA helps to establish National Congress of American Indians
National Congress of American Indians
The National Congress of American Indians is a American Indian and Alaska Native indigenous rights organization. It was founded in 1944 in response to termination and assimilation policies that the U.S. government forced upon the tribal governments in contradiction of their treaty rights and...
1948 First college scholarship] awarded
1956 AAIA establishes Field Health Nursing program
1968 AAIA begins effort to prevent Otitis Media
Otitis media
Otitis media is inflammation of the middle ear, or a middle ear infection.It occurs in the area between the tympanic membrane and the inner ear, including a duct known as the eustachian tube. It is one of the two categories of ear inflammation that can underlie what is commonly called an earache,...
on Indian reservations
1968 AAIA works to protect Taos Blue Lake
Taos Pueblo
Taos Pueblo is an ancient pueblo belonging to a Taos speaking Native American tribe of Pueblo people. It is approximately 1000 years old and lies about north of the modern city of Taos, New Mexico, USA...
1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act
Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act
The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, commonly abbreviated ANCSA, was signed into law by President Richard M. Nixon on December 23, 1971, the largest land claims settlement in United States history. ANCSA was intended to resolve the long-standing issues surrounding aboriginal land claims in...
enacted
1978 Indian Child Welfare Act
Indian Child Welfare Act
The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 is a Federal law that governs jurisdiction over the removal of Native American children from their families.-General:...
signed into law
1982 AAIA President Ortiz honored by MacArthur Foundation
MacArthur Foundation
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is one of the largest private foundations in the United States. Based in Chicago but supporting non-profit organizations that work in 60 countries, MacArthur has awarded more than US$4 billion since its inception in 1978...
1984 Tribal Government Tax Status Act becomes law
1986 Landmark Washington Indian Child Welfare tribal-state agreement signed
1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act , Pub. L. 101-601, 25 U.S.C. 3001 et seq., 104 Stat. 3048, is a United States federal law passed on 16 November 1990 requiring federal agencies and institutions that receive federal funding to return Native American "cultural items" to...
enacted
1991 The Medicine Wheel Coalition for the Protection of Sacred Sites established
1994 Amendments to American Indian Religious Freedom Act
American Indian Religious Freedom Act
The American Indian Religious Freedom Act, Public Law No. 95-341, 92 Stat. 469 , codified at , is a United States federal law and a joint resolution of Congress that was passed in 1978. It was enacted to protect and preserve the traditional religious rights and cultural practices of American...
approved
1994 Reaffirmation of the Ione Band of Miwok Indians
Miwok
Miwok can refer to any one of four linguistically related groups of Native Americans, native to Northern California, who spoke one of the Miwokan languages in the Utian family...
by the federal government
1996 Bighorn Medicine Wheel Historic Preservation
Medicine Wheel National Historic Landmark
The Medicine Wheel/Medicine Mountain National Historic Landmark is a medicine wheel located in the Big Horn Mountains of the U.S. state of Wyoming....
plan adopted
1998 First AAIA-sponsored diabetes
Diabetes mellitus
Diabetes mellitus, often simply referred to as diabetes, is a group of metabolic diseases in which a person has high blood sugar, either because the body does not produce enough insulin, or because cells do not respond to the insulin that is produced...
conference takes place
2000 AAIA expands grants to summer camps
2006 AAIA creates Dakotah-language
Dakota language
Dakota is a Siouan language spoken by the Dakota people of the Sioux tribes. Dakota is closely related to and mutually intelligible with the Lakota language.-Dialects:...
Scrabble
Scrabble
Scrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a game board marked with a 15-by-15 grid. The words are formed across and down in crossword fashion and must appear in a standard dictionary. Official reference works provide a list...
game and hosts first tournament
2007 Dakotah language K-12
K-12
K–12 is a designation for the sum of primary and secondary education. It is used in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand where P–12 is also commonly used...
curriculum completed
2008 Tribal amendments to Title IV-E Foster Care and Adoption Assistance Act approved in Fostering Connections for Success and Increasing Adoptions Act
Programs
The Association on American Indian Affairs offers various scholarships and helps nearly 100 students per year pursue graduate and undergraduate studies. It continues to work to ensure appropriate implementation of the Indian Child Welfare Act, which AAIA helped to draft and enact in 1978 to protect Indian children at risk of being placed in foster careFoster care
Foster care is the term used for a system in which a minor who has been made a ward is placed in the private home of a state certified caregiver referred to as a "foster parent"....
or for adoption. AAIA works with tribe
Tribe
A tribe, viewed historically or developmentally, consists of a social group existing before the development of, or outside of, states.Many anthropologists use the term tribal society to refer to societies organized largely on the basis of kinship, especially corporate descent groups .Some theorists...
s and traditional Indian religious petitioner
Petitioner
A petitioner is a person who pleads with governmental institution for a legal remedy or a redress of grievances, through use of a petition.-In the courts:The petitioner may seek a legal remedy if the state or another private person has acted unlawfully...
s in efforts to protect sacred lands such as the Bighorn Medicine Wheel
Medicine wheel
Medicine wheels, or sacred hoops, were constructed by laying stones in a particular pattern on the ground. Most medicine wheels follow the basic pattern of having a center of stone, and surrounding that is an outer ring of stones with "spokes", or lines of rocks radiating from the center...
in Wyoming
Wyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
. It works with tribes to educate Native people about diabetes and health related issues. AAIA played a key role in enacting the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act , Pub. L. 101-601, 25 U.S.C. 3001 et seq., 104 Stat. 3048, is a United States federal law passed on 16 November 1990 requiring federal agencies and institutions that receive federal funding to return Native American "cultural items" to...
and continues to assist efforts to repatriate human remains, funerary and sacred objects to their tribes. AAIA provides funding for youth summer camps with a cultural, language, substance abuse
Substance abuse
A substance-related disorder is an umbrella term used to describe several different conditions associated with several different substances .A substance related disorder is a condition in which an individual uses or abuses a...
, and health and wellness focus. AAIA works to preserve Native languages, with a particular focus upon the Dakotah language.
Indian Child Welfare Act
The Indian Child Welfare ActIndian Child Welfare Act
The Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 is a Federal law that governs jurisdiction over the removal of Native American children from their families.-General:...
(ICWA) is a federal law that seeks to preserve Native American families and keep American Indian children that must be placed out of the home with American Indian families, whenever possible. The United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
passed ICWA in 1978 in response to the alarmingly high number of Indian children being removed from their homes by both public and private agencies. The intent of Congress under ICWA was to "protect the best interests of Indian children and to promote the stability and security of Indian tribes and families" (25 U.S.C. § 1902). ICWA sets federal requirements that apply to state child custody
Child custody
Child custody and guardianship are legal terms which are used to describe the legal and practical relationship between a parent and his or her child, such as the right of the parent to make decisions for the child, and the parent's duty to care for the child.Following ratification of the United...
proceedings involving an Indian child who is a member of or eligible for membership in a federally recognized tribe.
Advocacy and research by the Association served as a catalyst for the Act. AAIA’s first activities involved the representation of Indian parents whose children had been wrongfully removed from them, beginning with a case involving the Devils Lake Sioux
Spirit Lake Tribe
The Spirit Lake Tribe is a Sioux tribe. Its reservation is located in east-central North Dakota on the southern shores of Devils Lake...
Tribe Later, AAIA conducted a survey of states with large Indian populations in 1969 and again in 1974 which indicated that approximately 25–35 percent of all Indian children are separated from their families and placed in foster homes, adoptive homes, or institutions. AAIA’s Executive Director was the lead witness at the first hearing on Indian child welfare and worked with Congress to draft the legislation. In the 30 years since ICWA was enacted, AAIA has worked to ensure the effective implementation of the Act.
Scholarships
The AAIA offers eight different scholarships to Native Americans, including emergency aid. These scholarships are intended to help a variety of Native Americans with their education, regardless of how long they have been in college, or their age. Except for the Allogan Slagle Memorial Scholarship, eligible students need to have 1/4 Indian BloodBlood quantum laws
Blood Quantum Laws or Indian Blood Laws is an umbrella term that describes legislation enacted in the United States to define membership in Native American tribes or nations...
and belong to a Federally Recognized Tribe. The Allogan Slagle Memorial Scholarship is unique in that it is offered to students from tribes that are not federally recognized. The Displaced Homemaker Scholarship is offered for men and women who have been unable to complete their education due to family obligations, but are now returning to college.
Summer camps
The Association on American Indian Affairs supports efforts to provide Native American children with access to summerrograms that increase their understanding of their language, culture, and that educate youth about diabetes. AAIA provided funding for 9 different summer camps in 2008 that addressed these issues.
Native language preservation
AAIA Native Language Preservation program produces materials in the Dakotah language for use in preschools, daycares and schools and by families for language learning in the home. Because there are few fluent Dakota speakers left and most are elders over the age of 55, there is a strong need for language preservationLanguage Preservation
Language preservation is the effort to prevent languages from becoming unknown. A language is at risk of being lost when it no longer is taught to younger generations, while fluent speakers of the language die....
. Younger people may have the ability to understand certain phrases or sing Dakota songs but lack the proficiency to keep the language alive for the next generation. AAIA materials include books, MS PowerPoint presentations
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft PowerPoint, usually just called PowerPoint, is a non-free commercial presentation program developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Office suite, and runs on Microsoft Windows and Apple's Mac OS X operating system...
, DVDs, CDs, and an animation piece that was nominated for Best Animation at the Native Voices Film Festival.
In 2005, with the permission of Hasbro
Hasbro
Hasbro is a multinational toy and boardgame company from the United States of America. It is one of the largest toy makers in the world. The corporate headquarters is located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, United States...
, AAIA created an official Dakota version of Scrabble
Scrabble
Scrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a game board marked with a 15-by-15 grid. The words are formed across and down in crossword fashion and must appear in a standard dictionary. Official reference works provide a list...
, including a 107 page dictionary for use with the game. It has sponsored Dakotah-language Scrabble tournaments and made the games available to schools throughout Dakotah communities.
Joining with the Sisseton Wahpeton College
Sisseton Wahpeton College
The Sisseton Wahpeton College was established in 1979 as an entity of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate. Located in northeastern South Dakota on the Lake Traverse Reservation, the College serves the Dakota people. SWC was originally a vocational and technical school; an academic program was added as...
, the Association on American Indian Affairs produced the first rap
Rapping
Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...
song ever recorded in the Dakotah language in 2005. The rap song, titled “Wicozani Mitawa,” or “My Life,” was recorded at a studio on the Sisseton Wahpeton College campus in Sisseton, South Dakota
South Dakota
South Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. Once a part of Dakota Territory, South Dakota became a state on November 2, 1889. The state has an area of and an estimated population of just over...
, on the Lake Traverse Reservation
Lake Traverse Indian Reservation
The Lake Traverse Indian Reservation is the homeland of the Sisseton–Wahpeton Oyate, a branch of the Sioux group of Native Americans. The reservation is located in parts of five counties in extreme northeastern South Dakota and parts of two counties in southeastern North Dakota, USA...
. “The entire concept behind this project is to create a way to have an entire generation of young people actually hear Dakotah being used,” Director of the Native Language Program for AAIA, Tammy Decoteau, said.
The program has also created a K-2 Dakotah language curriculum which all includes all of the books, CDs, games and other materials needed for implementation of the curriculum.
All of AAIA’s language materials are available for translation into other Native languages.
Sacred lands
AAIA has worked on sacred site protection for most of its history. Its work has included efforts to protect such sites as Devils TowerDevils Tower National Monument
Devils Tower is an igneous intrusion or laccolith located in the Black Hills near Hulett and Sundance in Crook County, northeastern Wyoming, above the Belle Fourche River...
and the Medicine Wheel
Medicine wheel
Medicine wheels, or sacred hoops, were constructed by laying stones in a particular pattern on the ground. Most medicine wheels follow the basic pattern of having a center of stone, and surrounding that is an outer ring of stones with "spokes", or lines of rocks radiating from the center...
in Wyoming, and Bear Butte
Bear Butte
Bear Butte is a geological butte feature located in western South Dakota, United States, that was established as a State Park in 1961. An important landmark and religious site for the Plains Indians tribes long before Europeans reached South Dakota, Bear Butte is called Mathó Pahá, or Bear...
in South Dakota. In the case of the Bighorn Medicine Wheel, AAIA helped create the Medicine Wheel Coalition, a coalition of Plains Tribes who have a traditional history of using the Medicine Wheel and Medicine Mountain for spiritual purposes. With the assistance of AAIA, the Coalition negotiated and signed in 1996 a landmark Historic Preservation Plan (HPP) with the Forest Service
United States Forest Service
The United States Forest Service is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 155 national forests and 20 national grasslands, which encompass...
, as well as state and local government agencies, designed to ensure that the entire area around Medicine Wheel and Medicine Mountain is managed in a manner that protects the integrity of the site as a sacred site. It has also worked to protect the San Francisco Peaks
San Francisco Peaks
The San Francisco Peaks are a volcanic mountain range located in north central Arizona, just north of Flagstaff.The highest summit in the range, Humphreys Peak, is the highest point in the state of Arizona at in elevation. The San Francisco Peaks are the remains of an eroded stratovolcano...
which are sacred to more than a dozen Southwest tribes, affect national policy in regard to sacred lands, and provide legal training to tribal advocates and federal officials regarding the laws applicable to sacred lands protection.
Repatriation
The Association on American Indian Affairs worked closely with Congress and other Indian advocates during the creation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation ActNative American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act , Pub. L. 101-601, 25 U.S.C. 3001 et seq., 104 Stat. 3048, is a United States federal law passed on 16 November 1990 requiring federal agencies and institutions that receive federal funding to return Native American "cultural items" to...
(NAGPRA). Enacted in 1990, NAGPRA provides for the return of human remains and cultural items to indigenous peoples, including funerary objects, sacred objects and cultural patrimony. NAGPRA contains provisions regarding the ownership of cultural resources, the repatriation of these resources to tribes and lineal descendants, and a prohibition on trafficking in these resources. Due in large part to this Act, museums and federal agencies across the United States have inventoried and repatriated thousands of remains and objects held in their collections. AAIA has been very involved in the implementation of NAGPRA, having facilitated repatriation of almost 2,000 human remains to Dakota tribes and sacred objects to a number of tribes, as well as filing amicus briefs in NAGPRA cases, writing legal analyses of NAGPRA for public education purposes and filing comments on proposed regulations. AAIA is committed to assisting in the return of sacred ceremonial material to the appropriate American Indian nation, clan, or family, and to educating the public about the importance of repatriation.